The present invention relates to a slide mount for mounting film transparencies from a photographic film web to prepare a photographic slide.
Photographic film transparencies are generally severed from a photographic film web and mounted in individual slide mounts to prepare photographic slides. The photographic image of the prepared photographic slide is then viewed in cooperation with a slide projector or other visualizing means.
In particular, slide mounts are generally formed of first and second plastic frame portions connected along an outer border to form a pocket therebetween. The slide mounts include a central aperture defined by film windows formed in each of the first and second plastic frame portions. Further, the slide mount includes a slit along the outer border which defines an insertion opening through which a photographic film transparency is inserted into the pocket between the first and second frame portions. The first and second frame portions are separated at the slit to insert individual film transparencies into the pocket of the slide mount.
After the film transparency is inserted into the pocket of the slide mount, the photographic image of the film transparency should align with the film aperture defined by cooperating film windows of the first and second frame portions so that it can be seen therethrough. Thus, it is important when the film is inserted that it be correctly aligned and secured so that the entire photographic image is visible through the aperture of the slide mount. However, it is often difficult to properly align and maintain the film transparency within the slide mount, particularly when the film is mechanically inserted. Thus, there has been a continuing need to develop a slide mount into which film transparencies can be easily and properly inserted by mechanical means and which will maintain a relatively fixed position for the film transparency inserted therein.
It is important that once the film is inserted, that the position of the photographic image be maintained within the aperture of the slide mount even under adverse conditions. That is, often times, when the film transparency in the slide mount is exposed to different conditions, such as, for example, extreme heat, the film expands and buckles. Thus, there has been a need to develop a slide mount which will accommodate for the expansion of the film without significant buckling.